TransCo keen on completion of Vis-Min interconnection

MANILA, Philippines -
The completion of the Visayas-Mindanao grid interconnection project by 2020
will be among the top priorities of the new leadership of National Transmission
Co. (TransCo), which will review the grid operator’s concession agreement with
government.

“We are targeting
2020 [for the Visayas-Mindanao grid connection],” newly-installed Transco president
and CEO Melvin Matibag said in a briefing.

The project is part of
the concession agreement of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP),
the nationwide grid operator.

Energy Secretary
Alfonso Cusi earlier said the grid connection should be finished within the
Duterte administration or before 2022.

Pushing for an earlier
target would allow fasttracking of a one-grid system, which will benefit
customers particularly Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) areas, Department of
Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said in the same briefing.

NGCP clinched a 25-year
concession to run the country’s transmission network after it took over the
management of the power grid in 2008 from state-owned TransCo.

Currently, only Luzon
and Visayas are interconnected while Mindanao is isolated. Interconnection
between Luzon and Visayas allows both grids to get supply from each other in
times of supply shortfall.

NGCP is currently
undertaking a study for the western interconnection route of the Visayas and Mindanao
grids after encountering issues on the eastern side.

The eastern route
traverses from Southern Leyte to Surigao del Norte while the western option
will run from Cebu-Negros to Zamboanga del Norte.

A previous study showed
there were geophysical issues in the eastern route of the interconnection.

Ensuring that NGCP
follows through its commitments under its concession agreement is among the
marching orders of the energy chief, Matibag said.

“We have to review the
concession agreement or the franchise agreement of NGCP, that we take a closer
look of compliance if it’s being done religiously,” he said. “We have to ensure
the development of our transmission grids so that it will be siginificant to
the national development of the agenda of President Duterte.”

The new TransCo chief
also said he will look at the possibility of using the transmission network to
improve the country’s data services.

“We will try to
look into the possibility of other use of the grid, of our transmission so that
it can also somehow help in lowering costs. Under the concession, if there is
any related business that is not necessarily transmission, which can be used by
the concessionaire, whatever earnings they will get from that should be used to
lower the electricity rates,” Matibag said.

With NGCP’s fiber
optics network, government will not have to go through telecom companies to
provide and improve data services.

Fuentebella said there
is a provision under the law to allow the use of the transmission grid’s fiber
optics in cable television and internet program for communications.